Why so much drama?! I really don't understand how or why someone would want to have so much chaos and drama in their life! When my friends and I started this league we said right off the bat "NO DRAMA!" More then anything else, that is what breaks up leagues and destroys friendships. As we soon found out, there is really nothing you can do if there is a drama queen (or king) in your mix. Well... thats not entirely true. We all know we can hit them a little harder during drills, kick their tails at endurance practice, maybe even "accidently" get our skates tangled up during packs. But what does that really solve? Sure it may make us feel better for the moment, but what happens when practice is over and the drama starts again? Because you know as well as I do that it will. Our league recently found out what you do. YOU DONT FEED THEM!
You know when you go to the zoo and see those signs hanging everywhere that say "DON'T FEED THE ANIMALS!"? Well...that pretty much applies to derby. Don't feed the animals!! Don't feed into the drama and bs. The more you feed them, the more they terrorize you. All you have to do is smile, nod your head and keep moving.
Our league recently ran across this problem. There was drama, cattiness, and general bs going on and we (meaning the board of directors) really didnt know why or how to stop it. You know that feeling you get when you walk in a room and something just feels "off". You can't put your finger on it but you can almost cut the tension with a knife? Well thats what it came to. It was like trying to breathe through pudding. You might find an air pocket...but dont breathe to deep. We honestly thought our entire league was unhappy and on the brink of collapse. Until we had a league meeting to hash things out...and then it came to light. It wasn't really the entire league that was unhappy. It was a slim few and they were making it hard for everyone else.
So during this meeting the "drama doers" had their say...and honestly had some valid points. They just had a very poor way of voicing them. You can't go into a forum such as this, especially with children around, and spurt off obscenities and name call and expect to be respected. It just ain't gonna happen! And my teammates did me proud!! The didn't play into this drama, they let them have their say, and when the drama-doers walked out of the meeting, it was like the clouds had parted. The tension was gone and my teamates pulled together with great ideas to fix the "problems" that were brought up and discussed the concerns.
So if I can give only one piece of advise to anyone...young, old, new skaters, or seasoned skaters it would be this:
DON'T FEED THE ANIMALS!!
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Practice, Practice, Practice!
We had a great practice last night! 15 skaters! Thats more then we've had in a long time! And we picked up another skater...which is great. We first did timed laps. Getting 5 laps in under 1 minute and 25 laps in under 5 minutes is something most of us didnt think was possible when we first started in January. Little did we know how far we would come! Every "older" (we have 3 newbies) skater that skated last night was under the 1 minute mark!! And they all improved their times...some (like me!) improved by almost 10 seconds! I am so proud of all of us! We've worked so hard!!
After a quick water break (man was it ever hot in there) we practiced hitting drills. I love these! After all...roller derby is all about the hitting right?? This...is where we are lacking.
Our league has only been together since January and really havent been hitting. Then it happend.... we welcomed a skater from another league who had been hitting. She's good! Better then most of our skaters! And in her defense she didnt know we werent hitting. So that first practice, when we practiced pack drills, she laid a hit on me that took me completely off the floor! It was an awesome hit..that I was totally not prepared for!! Our girls have never seen anything like this before. Some have never been to a bout! So when this girl stepped on the track and blew everybody away, there was instant tension from some of our girls. And I really dont get it! Shes here to be a part of us! Not be against us! Shes a wonderful skater and a very sweet girl. If they only took the time to get to know her instead of acting like junior high girls! Totally irritates me! Ok...enough of the ranting... I will leave you with this one final thought. The definition of teamwork:
Show IPA
After a quick water break (man was it ever hot in there) we practiced hitting drills. I love these! After all...roller derby is all about the hitting right?? This...is where we are lacking.
Our league has only been together since January and really havent been hitting. Then it happend.... we welcomed a skater from another league who had been hitting. She's good! Better then most of our skaters! And in her defense she didnt know we werent hitting. So that first practice, when we practiced pack drills, she laid a hit on me that took me completely off the floor! It was an awesome hit..that I was totally not prepared for!! Our girls have never seen anything like this before. Some have never been to a bout! So when this girl stepped on the track and blew everybody away, there was instant tension from some of our girls. And I really dont get it! Shes here to be a part of us! Not be against us! Shes a wonderful skater and a very sweet girl. If they only took the time to get to know her instead of acting like junior high girls! Totally irritates me! Ok...enough of the ranting... I will leave you with this one final thought. The definition of teamwork:
team·work
[teem-wurk] Show IPASunday, June 5, 2011
Our League
Hello and welcome to my blog! I don't have much experience under my belt, but I'll post what I know. First...a little about our league...
Our league was founded in 2010 by a very dear friend who recruited my husband as a member of his board of directors. Originally I had no interest in skating at all! I could not imagine myself participating in roller derby! I was an overweight mother of 5 (2 of my own and 3 step-children) who had never really had any interest in sports. I just thought it would be cool to watch! For the first few months my dear husband would work third shift, come home and shower, work on "derby stuff", go to meetings, sleep for about 3 hours and start all over. I couldn't understand what the big deal was and why he was literally killing himself for this thing called roller derby!
And then.....it started....
I was asked to join them. I had no idea what I was getting myself into or what I could offer. All I knew was I would get my husband back...and quite frankly thats all I really wanted. Little did I know how much derby would change my life!
When we started our journey, we were known as RiverCity Roller Girls, Peoria Illinois. As things progressed, we soon noticed all of our skaters were from Fulton County, not Peoria County so we made a decision to move our focus from the city to small town USA. It has been the best decision we made in the early days of our league!
We recruited our friends, family and siblings to get involved and skate with us. What we found was so drasticly different from the city girls and the farm girls were, those farm girls could skate! Don't get me wrong...the city girls could skate too. But those girls from small towns were skaters! They'd been skating every weekend since they could tie their shoes. And they had heart! The knew we were just getting started and had nothing to offer them, but still they wanted to skate for us. So we set a date for our very first practice and when that day got here we were so nervous, excited, and scared. We had no idea what would happen...but something was about to!
Since that first practice in January, we've lost skaters due to various reasons, (jobs, injuries, lack of motivation, etc.) we've gained more great skaters, coaches and NSO's. We've undergone a name change and are now called Spoon River Speed Demons, and most recently we've joined USARS. Though we are not ready to compete yet we have learned so much in the last 5 months about derby, but more importantly about ourselves. I think what we've learned most is never give up!!
Our league was founded in 2010 by a very dear friend who recruited my husband as a member of his board of directors. Originally I had no interest in skating at all! I could not imagine myself participating in roller derby! I was an overweight mother of 5 (2 of my own and 3 step-children) who had never really had any interest in sports. I just thought it would be cool to watch! For the first few months my dear husband would work third shift, come home and shower, work on "derby stuff", go to meetings, sleep for about 3 hours and start all over. I couldn't understand what the big deal was and why he was literally killing himself for this thing called roller derby!
And then.....it started....
I was asked to join them. I had no idea what I was getting myself into or what I could offer. All I knew was I would get my husband back...and quite frankly thats all I really wanted. Little did I know how much derby would change my life!
When we started our journey, we were known as RiverCity Roller Girls, Peoria Illinois. As things progressed, we soon noticed all of our skaters were from Fulton County, not Peoria County so we made a decision to move our focus from the city to small town USA. It has been the best decision we made in the early days of our league!
We recruited our friends, family and siblings to get involved and skate with us. What we found was so drasticly different from the city girls and the farm girls were, those farm girls could skate! Don't get me wrong...the city girls could skate too. But those girls from small towns were skaters! They'd been skating every weekend since they could tie their shoes. And they had heart! The knew we were just getting started and had nothing to offer them, but still they wanted to skate for us. So we set a date for our very first practice and when that day got here we were so nervous, excited, and scared. We had no idea what would happen...but something was about to!
Since that first practice in January, we've lost skaters due to various reasons, (jobs, injuries, lack of motivation, etc.) we've gained more great skaters, coaches and NSO's. We've undergone a name change and are now called Spoon River Speed Demons, and most recently we've joined USARS. Though we are not ready to compete yet we have learned so much in the last 5 months about derby, but more importantly about ourselves. I think what we've learned most is never give up!!
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